Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Day 8 - 31 scenes of terror- The Stepfather (1987)

 Day 8 - 31 scenes of terror

For the 8th day of 31 scenes of terror comes from one of the most underrated thrillers from the 1980's. This of course being The Stepfather.

The Stepfather tells the tale of a crazed psychopath who marries into single families with this crazed idea of the "perfect family" and the American dream. Once the families fail to live up to his expectations he completely loses it, butchers the family then changes his identity and looks and moves to a new town, starts a new job, and finds a new family. Something he's done several times.

The original Stepfather opens with a punch when our lead, played brilliantly by Lost's very own Terry O'Quinn as he appears in a bathroom with blood splattered on his face. He goes into the shower, changes into fresh clothes, shaves, cuts his hair, and puts in contacts. Afterwards he packs a suitcase, walks out and slowly goes down the stairs on what seems like a pretty calm morning in a nice suburban  house. He strolls down the stairs, before the camera slowly pans back revealing framed photographs smeared with bloody hand prints and the constant tone of a phone off the hook. Here it shows the bloody aftermath of Jerry's latest breakdown. Several family members brutally murdered with their bodies laying everywhere including two small children. Jerry fixes a fallen over chair, then walks out into the nice fall day whistling as he goes onto his new life.

Complete and utter perfection. Something that always bothered me about the remake was the fact in the opening not once single drop of blood was shown with the dead family. Are you serious?


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